This is the place for photos and reflections of my visits to Latin America beginning in 2012. Previous blogs are linked on the main pages of my photo collections on flickr. HAPPY TRAILS!

Monday, November 9, 2015

TO ANTIGUA & BACK

On Sunday, November 8th Mike headed to PDX and I headed across the lake to Panajachel.

I had time in Panajachel for a nice breakfast with friend Laure and a quick spin through the market, looking for goldfish (me, no luck) and tea and fresh produce (Laure).

Laure and her husband Tony call this women 'the avocado whisperer' because she can always sell them just what they want based on when they plan to eat the avocados.

From there I headed east in a share shuttle to Antigua.

I stayed 1 night in my favorite hotel there, Casa Cristina.

I've loved this 2 headed jaguar bench for many years - I'm happy that now his cousin lives at Ti Wachooch.

I walked around a bit Sunday afternoon and evening - too crowded for my taste so I spent very little time in the central area

and found more to enjoy on quieter streets.

Then a beautiful sunset on Casa Cristina's roof and early to bed.

Before 6am I was up exploring. Mike flew PDX > LAX > GUA and was met by a shuttle I set up with the hotel; he arrived at Casa Cristina around 8am and headed straight into a much needed nap which gave me more time to explore while the streets were still quiet. Here's the proof...

La Merced

La Recolección

The market

I eventually found the goldfish I was looking for at a pet store near the market - photo below; poor things had quite a journey! I met this friendly guy named Juan with lots of local history on the street outside Casa Cristina.

So happy to have this best friend here in Guatemala with me! We had a nice breakfast at Fernando's

with our friend Misha the cat.

Then our favorite driver, Alfredo Garcia, picked us up at Casa Cristina and we made our way past interesting scenes back to Lake Atitlán

About Me

I've been a teacher for more than 34 years, recently retired from directing Structured Learning Centers for kids with autism and multiple disabilities in The Dalles, Oregon. I did my undergraduate work at Lewis & Clark College and my SpEd Masters at Portland State University. Gaining conversational ease in Spanish is an important professional and personal goal for me and I find attending Spanish schools in Latin America and volunteering with local organizations both productive and addictive. I'm hoping to help others with their goals along the way and have developed the Live and Learn in Latin America program to provide credit for immersion, volunteer, and cultural learning projects.
ALSO...In the course of my immersion studies in Latin America, I fell in love with the people of San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá, Guatemala and am working in cooperation with the Cooperativa Spanish School to match scholarship sponsors with promising students who would otherwise be limited to 6 years of school: BecaProject.org